Angry Bird

I thought I'd go for a bit of fun with a card for my (adult) grandson because I'm sure he must be a fan of the Angry Birds - I know his father is - and his grandmother (dare I admit it)!!  For those who may not know, it is a series of computer games where birds are fired from catapults to destroy buildings and so on erected by the Bad Piggies who incidentally have stolen the eggs from the birds - yes I know, don't ask!! but it is fun.

The card was made using scraps of card cut out with various punches and dies to resemble one of the birds and a little piggie.  I will endeavour to get back to more serious topics but needed something cheery to do on a dismal and damp Saturday morning - that's my excuse if I need one.

Decoupage

I've not done any decoupage for quite a while but when I saw some of the La Pashe Wrinklies designs I just had to have a go and found them not too difficult to cut out.  The designs are quite large so not much else is required to make a card, just added some embossed background and a sentiment. These are so cleverly drawn aren't they?

Spellbinders Gold

Well I was tempted to get just one set of the new Spellbinders Gold dies and went for the one which matches up with the original Labels Four.  Getting a perfect result was a bit of an adventure to say the least but I think I got there in the end.  These dies are quite intricate and they cut, emboss and deboss which seems to be what was causing me some problems.  I found I was having to put them through twice in different orientations to get the cut but my first attemps resulted in some of the  sections being only partially cut.  When I looked closely at the packaging I realised that these partially cut areas were in fact deboss sections (I think) and ought not to have cut at all.  I'm not sure I will invest in any more of these intricate dies - they seem to take ages to produce by the time the little cut areas have been pushed out and the little bits of silicone paper removed from the deboss areas.  I use silicone baking parchment when cutting some of the more intricate dies as I find it helps to release the card from the die once cut.

Anyway I eventually made a card with a couple of them using backing paper from Papermania, a stamp from Stampin' Up and two of the intricate die cuts.

Cute Hedgie

Well I've done it again - been tempted by a magazine giving away free stamps but my excuse (if I need one) is that they are really cute images from Country Companions and there was also some free double sided paper as well and a retro download  free offer inside.   I've used some of the paper here together with the hedgehog image, coloured with alcohol pens and glitter added to the dandelion clocks.  The greeting was made up from stamps in the set, cut out with Nestabilities. My stamp collection just seems to keep growing so maybe I should avoid the newsagent's shop in future!!

Monochrome

Monochrome for Make My Monday - how's that for alliteration?? - actually they are asking for a monochrome clean and simple card this week.  This is a style I shy away from mainly because of the distinct possibility, in my case, of getting unwanted marks or smudges, however I've managed a relatively clean result today (just don't ask why I decided it needed a tiny butterfly!!!).  Stamps are from Stampin' Up Summer Silhouettes set, recently acquired, cut out with Nestabilities.  Shades chosen were Perfect Plum and Pale Plum and the sentiment is a clear stamp from my colllection.  I think the CAS style is actually suited to cards for the less happy situations.  Do take a look on their blog to see what the design team have produced and maybe have a go yourself.

Mucky Paws!

I went into the craft room this afternoon with something in mind to do and then ended up doing something completely different resulting in fingers of a most interesting colour.  In fact there are those who might think I was a heavy smoker if they spoitted them so a clean up is next on my agenda.  The talented  Hels Sheridan was demonstrating on TV in the week and I was inspired to have a go at playing with Distress Stains, Distress inks and masks to make a background for some dimensional butterflies made using Art Parts mouldable film.  This material can be heated and moulded easily and if you don't like the results, can be re heated to try again.  I started by sticking a page from an old book onto the film, stamped some butterflies using a Docrafts Urban stamp - these were then cut out and coloured using distrsss Markers in the same colours as used for the 'scene'. I only moulded the butterflies slightly being mindful of the postage rates on thicker cards but of course if they were on a box the wings could be much more curved.

I hope you've all had a good weekend - the sun is shining now from a blue sky but when I got up this morning it was snowing thick and fast but fortunately although it settled initially, it soon disappeared thank goodness. Yesterday afternoon we had thunder, lightning and hail so what next I wonder??

PS - I've just realised that the brownish shades produced by mixing yellow and purple might just qualify this for inclusion in the Sunday Challenge on Hels' blog - follow the link above.